Wake Up Call

A read an article the other day from a pretty well respected icon in the blogging game. Leo Babauta over at Zen Habits has about 160,000 readers – an insane number when you’ve been doing this long enough to know what that really means.

The idea was as simple as it gets. So simple in fact, that it should not require an article at all, much less a follow-up article espousing his thesis.

Yet it was at once genius and worthy of widespread proclamation.

His culprit as the worst antagonist against our habit forming ideals? In his wise words, “Not doing the habit”.

And there it is, like a 2×4 in the forehead. Well of course it’s the biggest obstacle, but… wait for it…. BUT YEAH, it really is my single barrier.

I wish I was able to get up earlier in the morning, but sleeping in until 10 every morning is what I do.

I wish I could drop 20lbs but this restaurant has the best cheeseburgers and fries.

I want to get out of debt this year but I don’t know where all my money goes.

I want my children to behave better but I can’t bring myself to discipline them.

I wish had gotten that promotion but I begin packing my bags to leave everyday at 4:30.

Tell me when to stop.

This is our life and this is our time. There are no ‘do-overs’, there is no ‘next time’. If we want something, we must bend our will in its direction. We must take action against that objective. “Tomorrow” will never come, we must start today.

That speaks to the genius behind Nike’s “Just Do It” campaign. Forget all else and just do that which you aspire to.

One of my favorite quotes I pulled from a Fortune magazine years ago, “a year from now you’ll wish you had started today”. Human nature being what it is, perhaps truer words have never been spoken.

So consider this your wake up call. Look in the mirror and decide what you’d like to change, what habits you’d like to establish and then get about the business of getting it done.